via TJC
The Lord has become like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel;
he has swallowed up all its palaces;
he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
mourning and lamentation. -Lamentations 2:5.
Passages like this one keep me up at night. Most of us live in a very comfortable world where sentiments like “God is Love” and “Jesus is my homie” signify the belief that God is a happy hippie accepting of our faults and content to let us live whatever lives we choose. Israel thought his way too. For hundreds of years Israel proudly proclaimed themselves “God’s chosen people'' as if that would excuse their disregarding of God’s commands, the desecration of their holy places, and their worship of other gods. They mistook God’s delayed judgment and patience for acceptance of their faults. Then God used the nation of Babylon to render judgment on Israel, completely breaking the nation. This prompted the poet who wrote Lamentations to rightly observe that the true and living God had become like an enemy to them. How terrifying it is when God identifies you as his enemy!
So how close are we to being God’s enemies again?
More than one million unborn children are killed every year in the United States…modern sacrifices to the pagan god Molech whose worship and child sacrifices brought destruction to Israel.
Sexual immorality reigns as the only acceptable religion and it is assumed that all will celebrate their sin of “pride”, an attack on God, without question or be silenced. God calls all to be better than our fallen nature and leveled Sodom and Gomorrah for less.
The avarice and greed of the wealthy show their devotion to Mammon, the devil of covetousness that infected Israel turning their temple sacrifice system into lucrative businesses for the money changers.
As warriors for the true God we should look at what happened to Israel at the hands of Babylon as a warning. God is not a happy hippie who just wants everyone to get along. He is jealous and demands a response to his love. The true and living God is holy, hates sin, and will judge everyone rightly, the living and the dead. God’s justice and truth will prevail, and if one is not aligned with God, the depths of his sorrow on the day of God’s judgment will be unfathomable. It is only by God’s patience that his hand of judgment is stayed from our current society, but for how long can the desecration continue? It is our job to fight for the souls of all with our tools of prayer, fasting and forgiveness to show the world real love before that judgment is served.
Daily Battle Order:
Read Lamentations Chapter 2 today and feel the despair of Israel on her day of judgment.
Know that, as a Kingdom Man, you were an enemy of God headed for the same fate before God saved you. Live today set apart for God and work out your salvation with fear and trembling, that your day of judgment goes more smoothly than Israels.
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